1. Kusama Yayoi

2. Prefecture
Youngest of four children of Kamon and Shigeru
Kusama.

3. What led Kusama in becoming an
artist?
God of the wind 1955

4. Early Works
Corpses 1950 Accumulation of the
corpses 1950
Earth of Accumulation
1950

5. In 1948, Kusama entered a four-year course
of study at the Kyoto Municipal School of
Arts and Crafts.
Studied Nihonga, which is _____-_____
_____.
Japanese-Style Painting
She hated classes. They were too
oppressive and tainted by hierarchy.
Needed freedom
Had to get
to America

6. Nihonga
Lingering Dream 1949 Face No.5 watercolor,
Chinese ink, pastel
on paper 1953
The Germ 1952
Bud Chinese ink on paper 1952 Flower Bud No.6
1952

7. Pumpkin 1982
Pumpkin 2008
Linksplodge 2009
Pumpkin watercolor 1979

8. Georgia O’Keefe was Kusama’s
first and greatest benefactor.
Greatest asset of getting
Kusama to America.
She sent her fourteen
watercolors.
In 1956, Kusama secures a solo
exhibition at Seattle’s Dusanne Gallery.
OFF TO AMERICA!
Untitled 1954

9. Dots… Infinity nets… Dots!
Kusama moves to New
York to really get her
new life going.
She accomplishes this
through
psychological
patterns of dots.
In 1961, her art spread beyond the canvas
to an environmental sculptor.

10. What’s the fascination?
“The monotony produced by repetitive
patterns bewildered the viewer, while
hypnotic serenity drew the spirit into a
vertigo of nothingness.”
(23)
It was by this method that she explored
the unbounded universe and the
infinite infinities beyond.

11. Psychosomatic art… any
ideas?
Working through internal conflict or
stress by…

12. Aggregation:
One Thousand Boats Show
1965
999 pictures of the boat line a room with the
original.
1000

13. Hundreds of Thousands
Aggression: One Thousand Boats Show 1965
Phallus Field 1965
Accumulation 1964

16. Became “Queen of the
Hippies”
Kusama began her Happenings in the late
1960s.
Childhood experience with sex brought about
her mindset.
She herself had no sex.
Like a true hippie, believed war was wrong.
Also believed that sex and drugs were
awesome.
Accumulation of Nets 1961

17. “Behind the impulse to fight is the simple
fact that men have penises.” (45)

18. Kusama’s Peep Show 1966
And flashing lights and mirrors and drugs all go so well toge

20. National Identity
“America is really the country that raised
me, and I owe what I have become to
her.” (61)
Felt ostracized by her home
country, Japan.

21. All over the world!
Returned to Japan in 1970 for a
few months.
Throughout 1971, explored
Europe with Rome as her base.
Back to New York in 1972, where
she was first listed in Who’s
Who. (She has been listed in Man Catching the
Insect, 1971
Who’s Who ever since.)
Finally, returned to Japan in
February 1975 due to illness.

22. Kusama’s works all over the
world
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Tate Modern, London
StedelijkMuseum, Amsterdam
Centre Pompidou, Paris
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
Fireflies on the Water 2002 – Located at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New Yor

23. Obliteration 2011

24. New York City – Present Day

25. Works Cited
Kusama, Yayoi. Infinity Net: The Autobiography of
Yayoi Kusama. Chicago: University of
Chicago, 2011.
Kusama, Yayoi, JaapGuldemond, Franck
Gautherot, Seung-Duk
Kim, DiedrichDiederichsen, Midori Yamamura, and
Lily Van DerStokker. Yayoi Kusama, Mirrored
Years. [Dijon]: Leses Du Réel, 2009.
Kusama, Yayoi. "Yayoi Kusama Official Site." Yayoi
Kusama Official Site. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/>.
Morris, Frances, and Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi Kusama.
New York: Distributed Art, 2012.
Dots Obsession 1999